KC Royals star Salvador Perez loved this restaurant. Now it’s getting a new location

Southwest Boulevard favorite Empanada Madness is relocating.

Owner Andrea Penaloza is taking two spaces near Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant, on the first level of the Crown Center Shops. She hopes to open later this month.

Empanada Madness specializes in Venezuelan and Colombian cuisine.

Penaloza opened Empanada Madness with her mother, Patricia Fernandez, a decade ago at 906 Southwest Blvd. Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez, a native of Venezuela, was one of their first customers and is considered part of their family, she said.

The restaurant will use a fast-casual service model. Customers will walk down a line choosing their menu items and pay at the end. It will have a few tables inside, and dine-in customers also can eat in the food court. It will offer carryout, delivery and catering.

Menu items include empanadas with shredded beef, shredded chicken or cheese; pastelitos with a choice of ground beef, shredded chicken, or potato, cheese and egg; and arepas with cheese and such ingredients as pork rinds, ham, shredded chicken or pulled pork.

Fernandez died in 2020, and Penaloza said she wanted to carry on the family business while also making a change. She closed the restaurant in February to prepare for the move.

“Millennials are helping downtown grow, and if you are there by 2026, when we have the World Cup in Kansas City, we are going to be in a great spot. It’s in the middle of downtown,” she said.

Also new to Crown Center Shops:

The Electronics Store recently opened on the second level. It offers new and refurbished electronics, including desktop and laptop computers, TVs, mobile phones and accessories, smart watches, earbuds, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, charging cables and batteries. James Brown opened it as an online shop in 2011.